1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system and method of observing actions performed on a computer and processing information that corresponds to the observed actions. In particular, the invention is directed to inferring relationships between objects based on information corresponding to the observed actions. More particularly, the invention is directed to improving the relevancy ranking and ordering of desktop search results based on the inferred relationships between objects.
2. Background Information
During the course of a computer session, many actions may be performed on a computer. For several reasons, including increasing workforce productivity, it may be desirable to monitor these actions. Known applications enable monitoring of actions performed on the computer through logging of events, such as keystrokes, web sites visited, emails sent/received, windows viewed, and passwords entered. Known applications further enable capturing of screen shots at scheduled time intervals. Known event monitoring applications are typically run in stealth mode to make them undetectable to users of the monitored computer.
Other known applications enable monitoring of actions performed on the computer through direct monitoring of select types of object-level actions performed using a single application or through direct monitoring of select types of object-level actions performed in a suite of associated applications. Once the select types of object-level actions are logged, they may be displayed.
While known applications present logged events and/or selected types of object-level actions, known applications are deficient at least because they do not monitor and log all types of object-level actions performed across multiple unrelated applications. Additionally, known applications are deficient because they do not identify relationships between the events and/or selected types of object-level actions. For example, known applications do not analyze information associated with each event and/or selected type of object-level action to infer relationships between two or more events and/or two or more objects. Furthermore, known applications do not analyze the relationships between objects when conducting desktop searches to improve the relevancy ranking and ordering of desktop search result objects or search result events based on the inferred relationships between objects. Known applications also do not enable the system to add and/or delete search result objects or search result events in response to searches submitted by a user.
Other drawbacks exist with these and other known applications.